Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has been speaking about his long-term plans for the team but says it may take eight years to begin to challenge with the top teams.

However, McCarthy thinks the league’s top four are pretty much untouchable and Wolves must be realistic when setting targets.

He said: “My long-term ambition is to help Wolves stay in the Premier League and build on it. I’ve no desire to go anywhere else. I love the club. I love where I live. We all want personal gratification. But that’s a by-product of staying in it. I get some pats on the back.

“We’re never going to compete with the top four. How long have Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal been doing it? No one else is competing with them anyway. If Martin O’Neill and Harry Redknapp can’t compete with the top three, why do we think we can?

“The one thing that stands out in my mind is Alan Curbishley leaving Charlton after making them a top 10 team. They weren’t happy with him. They wanted to be better. All the soundbites when he left. B****cks.“

Before today’s Premier League games, Wolves lie five points clear of the relegation zone and McCarthy wants to eclipse what David Moyes has done at Everton.

He said:“Grow up and understand where your position in life is. Kick against the trend and beat one or two of them along the way. Everton have done it. They are as good as anyone we’ve played but it’s taken David Moyes eight years to build that team.

“If we’re in the Premier League in eight years I’d love to think I’ve got a side like Moyesy. I live in the area and care how fans feel. Their desires and opinions don’t match reality. You end up in Disney World. I’m in the real world.”

My verdict:A pretty good assessment from MM as per usual. With the right investment we can push to be at least a decent mid table side in the next few years. It would be interesting to see how things developed past that point.

What do you think Wolves’ realistic target could be over the next decade? Leave your comments below.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy has today insisted that he and the players were keeping things in perspective despite Wolves’ 3-1 at West Ham on Tuesday.

McCarthy hopes all the fans were jubiliant after Tuesday night but wants everyone to stay calm.

He said: “I hope the fans were celebrating the result and nothing else, because how quickly could it turn around? If Hull and Burnley win two games and we don’t get anything out of tomorrow and then go down to Arsenal, it could be so different. It’s dangerous ground that, because this is another game.

“We’re not getting carried away – do people think we’re quaffing champagne and smoking cigars? Do me a favour. Everyone is blowing smoke up our rears at the moment. Once you start feeling like that outwardly, that’s when you get a slap. We could get our backsides kicked against Everton, because the Premier League is like that.

“You can get results through style, but we’ve done it with hard work and if you get ahead that way in a game where the other team is suffering and the fans are giving them stick, you get that bit of confidence to pass it. But you have to earn the right to do that. We’ll have to work twice as hard against Everton and then Arsenal.

“If you start off tomorrow like we did for periods against West Ham when we played with a bit of style we’ll get slapped. If we start off doing all the negative, horrible jobs properly such as beating them up, winning the fight, being in their half and in their faces, turning them around, putting them under pressure, being solid, not giving anything away, we can get a foothold in the game. But don’t start thinking we’re going out to play football otherwise we’ll get turned over.”

My verdict: MM is right. We all need to stay calm until it’s mathematically impossible for us to go down. I still think we will stay up but we’ve just got to keep going and picking up points. Up the Wolves!

McCarthy also said that defeat to Burnley on Saturday would not be “the end of the world”.

He said: “If we get 12 points out of it – and I don’t know if that will be enough – then other teams have to get 12 points. That’s four wins. If we can win four games, the others in the bottom four or five have to win four and draw another, because we have a better goal difference.

“Burnley is a huge game and I’m not going to try to play down the importance of it, but I’m not going to ‘big it up’ either by saying it’s the end of the world if we get beat.

“Because if we do and that happens then we might as well pack up on Saturday. And there’s no chance of that.”

Sunderland are now immediately above Wolves after Wigan’s 1-0 win over Liverpool last night. The Black Cats play Bolton Wanderers at the Stadium of Light tonight.

McCarthy added: “Burnley play Stoke tomorrow, so we could be in the bottom three before we play them. It doesn’t matter – it’s where we finish that matters. Burnley is a huge game for us. But if they draw tomorrow and beat us on Saturday, they’d be three points in front of us.

“Then we have two or three ‘biggies.’ West Ham is a big one. Who’s to say we can’t beat them? We’ve got Blackburn and Sunderland here, we have Fulham away and Stoke and Portsmouth to play.

“We have winnable games right to the end of the season, so it’s just a case of keeping going, keeping cool and not losing our heads at all.”

My verdict: Wolves do have a favourable run-in and McCarthy should be confident of survival if the team can continue putting in performances as they did on Saturday. Wolves’ key game in hand is away to West Ham on 23rd March. Personally I think it will take less than 12 points to survive and as little as eight points could do it.